collected in Nerc Holland hi/ Mr. Robert Brorcn. 46 1 



lis Linn., &:c. to the other. Whoever considers these characters, and 

 compares these sets of insects with each other, will be immediatelv 

 convinced that, according to the modern system, they ought to 

 constitute different genera. The mandibula of one side (in some 

 the right-hand one and in others the left) bidcntate at the apex ; 

 maxilltc with the outer lobe truncated at the apex, the inner angle 

 acuminate, and narrowest at the base, and ciliated ; the quadrate 

 entire mentum ; and above all the compressed, orbiculate, shining, 

 punctate, hairy clava of their antennae, the exterior lamellae of 

 which usually inclose the intermediate one as entirely as the valves 

 of a bivalve shell the animal which inhabits it, distinguish the for- 

 mer of these tribes, to which I have long given the generic name 

 of Bolboceras ; whereas the other, the true Geotrupes, or earth- 

 borer, is remarkable for mandibulae without teeth ; maxillae with 

 a prismatic exterior lobe terminating in a brush of stiff dense 

 liairs; an orbicular deeply-emarginate mentum; labium with 

 rounded lobes ; and antennae with a subovate clava, the third 

 joint of which is always apparent, and all its joints exhibiting a 

 downy appearance, but having no hairs. The body of the former 

 also is more hemispherical than that of the latter, and the clypeus 

 is not rhomboidal. 



Geotrupes vernalis seems to connect these two genera; its body 

 approaching to an hemispherical form ; its labrum, though not 

 emarginate, terminating in a concave line; and its mandibulae 

 having two teeth at the end. It differs from both in having the 

 interior tooth the shortest, and the exterior edge of the mandible 

 sinuate. In most other respects it agrees with G. stercorarius, &c. 

 In Bolboceras Cephas the middle joint of the clava of the antennae 

 is not so wholly shut up between the two exterior ones as to be 

 entirely hidden by them. In other respects it agrees with the 

 rest. My details of Bolboceras were taken from B. quadridens, 



3 o '2 and 



